Sunday, May 16, 2010

I have a little catching up to do! I have not moved on to the next BabyStep yet, as it involves setting a specific bedtime and I did not want to do that on the weekend where I was free to stay up late/sleep in a bit. I start back to my regular work week tomorrow so I will be establishing the bedtime starting tonight and will report back on this tomorrow.

In other news:

1.) I fell a little behind with my routines over the weekend. I am noticing this is becoming a pattern. It's just a lot harder to complete my morning routine when I don't have a certain time I need to have it completed by. When I am working I find it easy to set myself to task and get it all done before I leave the house in the morning. On my days off there isn't that cut-off point, and I tend to get lax and not do everything. I could create a self-imposed deadline, but I just don't wanna.

I did get right back on track last night, and I realized how much smoother things go now that these routines are taking shape. I no longer have to worry that I'm forgetting to take something I need with me to work, because now it was pre-packed the night before. I no longer have to sit on my couch/bed with the sheets all a muss because I made it that morning. I'm finally seeing enough improvement around here to feel a little more motivated to do my routines regularly.

2.) Although I haven't officially begun Zone work yet, I did feel a little ambitious the other day and took a crack at the bathroom. Since I moved in this apartment the shower curtains have been driving me batty; they were covered in soap scum that rubbed off on my hands anytime I touched them. They belong to my roommate so I couldn't just toss them and buy new ones, so instead I decided to wash them in the washing machine.

Before I did so I Googled around for info, and found that people have actually had good luck with washing plastic shower curtains in the washer and have used several methods to do so. Some use hot water (theory being it relaxes the plastic so it doesn't shred in the machine), some use cold (they are afraid hot will melt the plastic.) Some used bleach, some used white vinegar, and some used plain old laundry detergent. Some combined these one way or another.

I ended up using warm water with laundry detergent and bleach. I also threw in some some white kitchen towels and washcloths to act as "scrubbers". There was no damage to the curtain, and it came out looking a million times better. Here is the before:

Yuck. Soap scum city. Now here is the after:

Much better!

3.) This has absolutely nothing to do with FlyLady or housekeeping, but I want to share anyway. I work for a living history museum, which means I dress in 19th Century Costumes and portray life in Ohio for that era. Mainly I do the Civil War (1860's), sometimes the Ohio pioneer era (1815ish), and only a few times have I done late Victorian (1890's.) Today I had to do 1890s for a Victorian Tea we hosted, which meant I had to put my hair up into what is called a "Gibson Girl" style. This is not easy, as my hair is only just past chin length. I practiced for hours yesterday trying to get it right, and it still took me over an hour to do it again this morning. Luckily, I found a hairspray that made this all possible, called Freeze It.

To give you an idea of the look I was going for, here are a few pics of an original Gibson Girl, Evelyn Nesbit:

There are many variations to this style, but the key factor is the poof, or "cloud" of hair piled on top of your head. This is my problem; some of my hair at the nape of my neck isn't even long enough to each that far up the back of my head to be gathered into the knot on top. The Freeze It took care of that no problem and just held it in place with no bobby pins or anything. It also has "brighteners" in it that actually made my hair look healthier than it really is instead of giving me that hairspray-dulled look. I actually found this by accident at WalMart while I was looking for something else, and almost passed it up. It comes in a gold can and only cost $3.00, so I figured it couldn't be much good. Luckily I pulled out my iPhone and looked up some reviews, and everyone said they loved it. I agree! For this amount of hold and the low price, it can't be beat. I go through a lot of hairspray doing my hair for work and this will not only get the job done, but not break my budget as well. I beats the expensive salon spray I used to use for over $10.00 a can! Here's a pic:

FYI: This shows the Original formula, but I am using the Mega Hold version. To wrap this up, here are some pics of me with the Gibson Girl hairstyle. The back loops were done partially with my own hair, and only one small hairpiece. Sorry for the yuck quality on most of these, they were taken with cell phones:

Setting out the lemonade.

Working with the cast iron stove.

Being silly and wearing a gentleman's hat on top my my Gibson Girl hair poof.

12 hours and a hard day's work later, the hair hasn't moved! (God, I look tired!)

OMG I knew I loved you from the moment I saw your "Flylady Flunky" title with vintage style photos, but this confirms it.

You quite possibly have my dream job (or what I once would have thought to be my dream job-- I did the museum circuit in when in college in Virginia, and grew QUICKLY tired of the stupid questions. I'm better as a hermit than a public servant)

@Lee- Lol, it IS my dream job, but even I can get worn out from working with the public. Sometimes I wish I could just work in the house for a week going about my day as though it were the 1860s without having to answer questions about every single thing I'm doing!